Jaffareadstoo is delighted to host one of today's stops on the A River in the Trees Blog Tour  |
| Riverrun 10 January 2019 My thanks to the publishers for my copy of this book and the invitation to be part of the blog tour |
Two women. Two stories. One hundred years of secrets. Everything I love about dual time stories is found in A River in the Trees which looks at two very different women whose stories overlap and interweave in a story of family secrets and hidden tragedy.
1919, and in West Cork, Hannah is living a bleak existence on the family farm. It's a life of hardship which is made all the more complicated by the family's involvement in the Irish War of Independence. Hiding a group of rebel fighters in the attic at the farmhouse puts Hannah and her family in grave danger from the notorious Black and Tans who will stop at nothing to apprehend the rebels and prevent insurrection. Hannah is attracted to O'Riada, the fanatical leader of the rebels, a connection which will have repercussions for Hannah, and her family, for generations to come.
In 2019, Ellen is at a crossroads in her life. Unsatisfied by both her work and her relationship with her husband, Ellen returns to Ireland to discover more about her family history. What she finds when she starts to dig into the past is both poignant and shocking in equal measure.
Moving both forwards and backward quite seamlessly A River in the Trees is a beautifully written story about family secrets. It's about living in a time when families were divided not just by politics but by the way the harsh realities of life influenced everything about their world and their place in it. Moving forwards a hundred years and Ellen's story shows her to be in a very different world but yet, the parallels still remain of troubled family dynamics and of relationships which are fractured beyond repair.
I started to read A River in the Trees at the start of this new year and by the time I was just a few pages into the story, I knew that this book, my first read of the year, was rather special. I turned the pages eagerly wanting to know more, not just about Ellen in the here and now but also about Hannah, a true heroine, whose desperately sad story will stay with me for a long, long time.
A River in the Trees already heads my ' Reads of the Year in 2019 ' list.
1919, and in West Cork, Hannah is living a bleak existence on the family farm. It's a life of hardship which is made all the more complicated by the family's involvement in the Irish War of Independence. Hiding a group of rebel fighters in the attic at the farmhouse puts Hannah and her family in grave danger from the notorious Black and Tans who will stop at nothing to apprehend the rebels and prevent insurrection. Hannah is attracted to O'Riada, the fanatical leader of the rebels, a connection which will have repercussions for Hannah, and her family, for generations to come.
In 2019, Ellen is at a crossroads in her life. Unsatisfied by both her work and her relationship with her husband, Ellen returns to Ireland to discover more about her family history. What she finds when she starts to dig into the past is both poignant and shocking in equal measure.
Moving both forwards and backward quite seamlessly A River in the Trees is a beautifully written story about family secrets. It's about living in a time when families were divided not just by politics but by the way the harsh realities of life influenced everything about their world and their place in it. Moving forwards a hundred years and Ellen's story shows her to be in a very different world but yet, the parallels still remain of troubled family dynamics and of relationships which are fractured beyond repair.
I started to read A River in the Trees at the start of this new year and by the time I was just a few pages into the story, I knew that this book, my first read of the year, was rather special. I turned the pages eagerly wanting to know more, not just about Ellen in the here and now but also about Hannah, a true heroine, whose desperately sad story will stay with me for a long, long time.
A River in the Trees already heads my ' Reads of the Year in 2019 ' list.
Jacqueline O'Mahony is from, Cork, Ireland. She did her BA in Ireland, her MA at the University of Bologna, and her PhD in History as a Fulbright Scholar at Duke University, and at Boston College. She has worked as a writer, editor and stylist at Tatler, Vogue and the Irish Independent.
She lives in Notting Hill with her husband and three young children.
Twitter @jacomahony #ARiverInTheTrees
@QuercusBooks @riverrunbooks
How wonderful to start the new year with such a special book! I've been a bit hit and miss with dual timeline novels before, but this one sounds like it has a lot going for it. Thanks for sharing your thoughts :-)
ReplyDeleteHi Stephanie, thank you ! I do hope that you decide to give this book a try!
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